Accountability

MetroHealth and Urban Community School to partner

The MetroHealth System and Urban Community School (UCS) are pleased to announce that they have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a community and school health center on the UCS campus. The partnership will enhance access to health care resources for UCS children and their families, UCS faculty, staff and their families, and the surrounding community.

Urban Community School plans to construct a new clinic building on its campus, located at 4909 Lorain Avenue. Initially, services will include primary care, pediatrics, behavioral health, a Hispanic Culture Health Clinic and a new service, MetroExpressCare, offering non-emergency room treatment for urgent health issues. MetroHealth will relocate a portion of its Family Medicine Department from its West 25th Street location to the new clinic building on the UCS campus. Construction is set to start in early 2019.

In addition, the building will include access to nutritional consultation, legal support, food access, Moms First program, a WIC office and a Reach Out and Read program.

At UCS, MetroHealth will operate the school’s clinic during school hours, eliminating many barriers to care for children and families. Services inside of the school will include immunizations, screenings, same-day sick care appointments, and primary and behavioral health care with services for children impacted by trauma,. Launched in 2013, MetroHealth’s School Health Program is currently offered to students at 13 Cleveland Metropolitan School District locations.

“As an Ursuline-sponsored school and under the guidance of a strong board of trustees, our commitment has always been to serve the whole child with the hope of meeting the needs of the entire family,” said Tom Gill, president of Urban Community School. “Health is an essential element of this commitment. We are thrilled to be partnering with MetroHealth to build what we believe will be an innovative and effective school-based health model. We also see ourselves as an anchor in the community and believe the overall impact on our community’s health is mission critical as well.”

“I am delighted the UCS Board and management have selected MetroHealth as their partner in this important endeavor. Their holistic focus on young people’s social, emotional, spiritual and physical development perfectly aligns with MetroHealth’s mission for the community. Together, we will create healthier neighbors and healthier neighborhoods,” said Akram Boutros, MD, FACHE, president and CEO of MetroHealth. “Urban Community School’s long history of collaboration, innovation and success increases the probability of sustainable impact on a community in need.”

The new health care services are planned to start in 2020.

About the MetroHealth System

The MetroHealth System, Cuyahoga County’s public health system, is honoring its commitment to create a healthier community by building a new hospital on its main campus in Cleveland. The building, and the 25 acres of green space around it, are catalyzing the revitalization of MetroHealth’s West Side neighborhood.

MetroHealth will break ground on the new hospital in late 2018, using nearly $1 billion it borrowed on its own credit after dramatically improving its finances. In the past five years, MetroHealth’s operating revenue has increased by 44.5 percent and its number of employees by 21 percent. Today, its staff of 7,700 provides care at MetroHealth’s four hospitals, four emergency departments and more than 20 health centers and 40 additional sites throughout Cuyahoga County. In the past year, MetroHealth has served 300,000 patients at more than 1.4 million visits in its hospitals and health centers, 75 percent of whom are uninsured or covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

The health system is home to Cuyahoga County’s most experienced Level I Adult Trauma Center, verified since 1992, and the only adult and pediatric burn center in the state of Ohio.

As an academic medical center, MetroHealth is committed to teaching and research. Each active staff physician holds a faculty appointment at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and its main campus hospital houses a Cleveland Metropolitan School District high school of science and health.